Dana White also said soccer had no skill because 5 year olds could play it. Clearly never watched a game played by 5 year olds - it's like saying five year olds push, shove and kick each other so therefore MMA has no skill at all
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Dana White also said soccer had no skill because 5 year olds could play it. Clearly never watched a game played by 5 year olds - it's like saying five year olds push, shove and kick each other so therefore MMA has no skill at all
I pi55 myself laughing so hard when insular footy supporters claim it’s the most skilful sport in the world.
Sorry, I know it’s a Richmond footy forum, but I really do.
I think this is where people get really confused.
Certain sports take less time to learn the basic skills, that gets a player over the basic skills threshold required to participate in the most basic level of match play.
This is why it’s easier to get a 5YO to play soccer than it is Australian rules football. At the absolute basic level, only need to be able to run and kick a rolling round ball along the ground to be able to participate in a meaningful way. As opposed to dropping an oval ball on the boot to kick, marking, chasing a ball that never bounces straight, hand pass etc.
Similar reason as to why my daughter (who’s not a massively sporty kind of kid, just likes to participate for a bit of fun with no huge investment in it) preferred to take up netball, rather than follow in the footsteps of her mother, who was a very decent basketball player. Only needed to know how to throw, catch and run to reach the basic skills threshold able to participate in a basic match. Don’t even need to know how to shoot if you don’t want to play that position. Compared to basketball, where you have the massive complication of needing to be able to dribble to move anywhere, as well as passing, catching and shooting.
Here’s the thing though. In those sports that have a lower bar for reaching the initial skills threshold. My experience is that after that initial threshold, it feels like squeezing blood out of a stone to then progress. You have to work really, really hard for every small progression in skill level. That’s where the difficulty level comes in. As opposed to sports with more specialist or wider ranging skills, where the progression is more steady.
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Would you say that footy requires a larger range of skills than just about any other sport? (As Panthera Tigris has listed)?
Who they were, and what connection they had to the club. Yes Victory will be punished anyway, but what their punishment will depend on a lot of factors. What difference does it make, other than a bit of chest puffing if the punishment is announced that day, or once more details are clear?
The AFL's response to the issues raised is indicative of how they response to anything- the easiest path to look they are taking hard action.
What about all the people you put offside with your posting?
Seems there is only one way to settle this, we storm the ground round 1 and see what happens.
To me the importance is the message you send and a delay waters that down. It wouldn't be a stretch to say this is the worst example of crowd behaviour ever seen in Australian sport.
I have no idea about sokkah or where the season is up to or what these teams are like but I reckon coming out the next day and saying these sides will no longer play for premiership points this season and their games will not be open to fans would be the right sort of message to send.
So offside is the same as being beneath?
Bit hard to strip search fans going into the ground to make sure they're not smuggling in flares.
Can't for the life of me think of a single reason to take flares to a sporting event n start chucking them around in the hope you can BBQ someone or something.
In terms of power v endurance ratio i would assume footy is up there pretty high. But in terms of skill level, its very poor IMO.
The vast majority of players are one sided. Many players can’t hit a target from 20m. Many players can’t kick between a set of goals 6.4m in width from 30m. Players can’t stick a bloody tackle. I can’t think of a sport that has a worse record of inaccuracy/failure when it comes to the key skills of a game.
Tony Locket was considered one of the most accurate kicks for goal in AFL history and has a career accuracy record of 69.74%. I will also add that they do not count any “out of bounds on the full” in these stats (which would no doubt reduce these numbers).
Jonny Wilkinson was considered the best goal kicker in Rugby and had a career accuracy record of 86.23% (this is all time stats for club and country). And goal posts have a much smaller width at 5.6m in that sport.
I think you're underestimating the levels of exhaustion AFL players are expected to execute elite skills at. Soccer players run nowhere near as far as AFL players in general.
When it comes to kicking, the nature of the balls and distance is something you've left out. You're taking shots a lot closer to goal in soccer and the ball, being round, is easier to kick straight. Conversely AFL players are constantly breaking tackles and continue the play. Soccer players get broken in small pieces the second they think they'll be tackled.
But in general, yes, soccer players have better skills with a ball at their feet, but AFL players would have to be some of the fittest players around and need a mix of strength, power, vision and skills to play at the top tier.
Different sports, different skills. Elite soccer players have elite soccer skills. Elite AFL players have elite AFL skills.
Yeah but I don’t think comparing Wilkinsons accuracy record with Locketts is apples and apples. Do you think Wilkinson would have a lower % if he had to kick all his shots with the hand to foot kick rather than the place kick (which takes out the possibility of error in the hand to foot ball drop)? Would Wilkinson have an 86% accuracy record if he played AFL footy?
The league average for 3 point shooting in the NBA is about 35%, are they poorly skilled?
And in general do you think that after 150 years of footy that the skill set is as good as it gets rather than the skill set being rated ”poor”? And similarly that the “inaccuracy/failure“ isn’t due to the skill set but the vagaries of AFL footy ie the shape of the ball, the amount of non stop running, the 360 playing style?
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Thanks for proving the point - people have no interest or knowledge of football/soccer but think they understand why fans behave in certain ways, and put the problem down to "oh you need just need to increase scoring".
6 billion plus people round the world love football, there are literally hundreds of professional games attended around the world every week, and somehow they all have a good time and usually no-one gets stabbed to death. So forgive me when people who admit they know nothing can rapidly diagnose the "problem" and provide a "solution".
Sokkah players don’t run as far in individual games, but they play more and would easily surpass the amount of km they run in a game over the course of a season. European leagues play more than double the games as AFL and you know this.
And I would argue all sports have their own levels of exhaustion. But if Stephen Curry had a free throw with a few seconds left to win a game, you can be pretty certain he will nail it, despite his exhaustion.
Is the place kick banned in footy? I don’t think it is. Although I admit it would be too hard to set up inside 30 seconds. I think it’s a moot point anyway. Set shot kicking accuracy always hovers around the low 50% mark, which is not acceptable on any level IMO.
As for shooting in basketball, isn’t the diameter of a ring twice the size as the basketball?
But that's not the argument. It's the exhaustion levels during a match that can impact the skills in game.
Fair enough. Is goal kicking accuracy more accurate in the first quarter compared to the last quarter? Serious question as I don’t know the answer.
You're forgetting that anyone who enjoys sokkah is clearly deficient in intellect, therefore those of us on the outside are the logical people to solve the problems in the game.
That's enough sokkah posting from me for a lifetime though, let's ban the sport entirely in this country and move on.
And bring back the ignore thread button!
I never mentioned aussie rules so I'm confused as to why you'd bring it up, but I'd say a game of soccer between five year olds is just as terrible as a game of Aussie Rules between five year olds - both are large groups of players following the ball around. I've played both codes and you are equally inept in both when you start out.
It wasn’t aimed at anyone. Just an interesting discussion point. And yes, similar to yourself I have played and coached both. So it was from that perspective of observation.
Perhaps you’ll disagree with me. But I actually don’t think a group of 5YOs even has the ability to play an actual match of Australian rules football. I personally think it’s too early. They just don’t have the body functionality to have mastered the basic skills to have reached the threshold skill level that enables them to play the very entry level of organised matches. That’s what I mean by the initial threshold being higher.
My 6yo can kick and chase a soccer ball around a ground. That’s all he needs to be able to do, to have the capability to play the absolute entry level of soccer match play. But he still can’t kick a ball dropped to the boot (Aussie Rules style) on the run. Still needs to stop stationary concentrate for quite a few seconds (with his tongue out the side of his mouth). Then drop it to his boot, sometimes still fresh airing. Same with hand passing. Sure some kids are more advanced than him, but a huge number are at a similar level. But they can all kick and chase a soccer ball along the ground.
Similar to my example with basketball vs netball. In netball a child only really needs to be able to catch and throw to join in at the most basic level of matches. As you point out, they will still look very poor and crowded on the court, because they have no idea of spacing, movement and positioning. But they can join in and play with those very rudimentary skills. Whereas a child can’t really join in organised match in basketball unless they have mastered some basic dribbling skills. Otherwise they actually can’t move anywhere with the ball. Hence a higher threshold to join in at basic level matches.
And this is probably why Australian Rules runs Auskick for the very early years and Basketball runs Aussie Hoops for those same years. Actual interclub junior matches waiting for a few years later - more like U8s. Whereas soccer we play inter club junior matches from Kindergarten and Prep in my neck of the woods.
That’s not to say soccer is less skilful. That was never my intent to infer that. It was more to say, the very basic skills needed to participate at the most basic level are not very specialised. Pretty much anyone with two arms and two legs (and some without) can do those things without ever being taught. And that’s what the appeal is and why there is such mass participation. To improve and rise above the pack though is immensely hard when they are basic skills that everyone can do. That’s where the difficulty level is and where my admiration comes from.
I kind of think about it a bit like athletics. My little bloke started little aths this season (I did it too at his age). All the kids can participate in a running race no problems without really teaching them anything. Sure, their running technique looks really poor and pacing themselves is non existent, they start wrong footed on the start line (some with their fingers in their ears because they don’t like the starting gun). But they can still participate at the basic level of organised competition, without really being taught much apart from to stay in their lane and run to the finishing line.
Field events are an entirely different kettle of fish and in my state, greatly restricted in variety, as the kids will need a couple more years of education and bodily development to be able to have basic enough skills to participate in these disciplines at the entry level of organised comp. But would we ever ask the question is Usain Bolt a more or less skilled athlete than NZ shot put throwing legend, Valarie Adams or high jump world record holder Javier Sotomayor? Of course we wouldn’t. Apples and oranges.
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